Black History Makers: Walter P. Manning

Walter P. Manning

Walter Peyton Manning was born May 3, 1920 in Baltimore, Maryland to his mother Winifred Manning. He grew up in Baltimore until the age of nine before moving to live with his uncle Jacob Prescod in Philadelphia.

In 1942, at 22 years of age, he tried to enlist into the United States Army Air Force but failed to obtain admission, being rejected due to a condition called hammertoe. This is a condition in which a toe curls under the foot due to a weakened muscle. Having returned to live with his mother, he decided to use his savings to get surgery to repair his toe.

After recovering he attempted again to enlist and entered the Army Air Cadet Training Program at Tuskegee Air Field in Tuskegee, Alabama on March 15, 1943. Upon graduation he was appointed a Second Lieutenant, and was assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group, 301st Fighter Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Corps. All of this roughly one year after his successful toe surgery.

He was stationed at Ramitelli Air Base, Italy and flew over 50 missions during World War II. On April 3, 1945, his squadron was given an assignment to protect bombers on a run in St. Polten, Austria. During this, his final mission, they ran into enemy planes and a dogfight commenced. Roughly 10 to 12 of the enemy airplanes were shot down.
Unfortunately Manning’s plane was also shot down, and upon bailing out, he parachuted into a waiting mob. Manning was subsequently beaten and then imprisoned at the Nazi Luftwaffe Air Force base near Linz, Austria.

Angry townspeople, urged on and aided by Luftwaffe officers, broke into the jailhouse. They tied Manning’s hands behind his back, drug him outside, and beat him. Then, as Nazi propaganda instructed them to, they murdered “a black pilot in the way Americans murdered blacks in their own land,” by lynching him. Despite obvious signs that Manning had been murdered when his remains were recovered by U.S. troops, no one was ever sentenced for this war crime.

It is believed he was the only African American prisoner of war to have been lynched during World War II, and it would be many years before he would be hailed as a hero. His family received $500 in the aftermath of his death, the standard WWII compensation.

Posthumously, Walter Peyton Manning was awarded six medals for heroism including a Purple Heart and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007. The Austrian Army placed a commemoration plaque in Linz at the location where he was murdered. Manning was just 24-years-old at the time of his death.

A native of Phoenix, Arizona Aundrea Sayrie is a firm believer in the power of words, faith and a strong spirit. Her greatest desire is to encourage those around her to discover and honor their truth, and to passionately live on purpose.